A peculiar feature of this quarter is that it is one of a lower level of activities- in May, the special school at Kureekad was closed for summer,  April is generally a lean month as the main stream schools remain closed and if our children have siblings studying in them, parents do not attach much importance to bringing their children to our school.

I.                   ACHIEVEMENTS & ACCOLADES

The quarter under review, had, as usual, a mixture of good and bad tidings, some very encouraging and some not so encouraging developments. Again, as usual, the good items we have to report far exceed the not so good ones.

1. The Greatest achievement of 2008-09 is that we could send Baby Treesa Biju to a normal play school in April 2009. Treesa joined Adarsh 2 years back. She is a mild case of Diplegic Cerebral Palsy. By the time she got admitted in Adarsh, all her developmental milestones had already been delayed. She could not even stand and walk independently. After continuous developmental physiotherapy, occupational therapy etc her functional status had improved considerably. She started walking after one year of admission. During the last one year when   she was in our Play school, she got ready  to join a normal school in 2009. This takes the total number of children, who joined a normal school after the training programme  at Adarsh t0 over 40 in the last 8 years. The sad part of this happy news is that for the last few years, we had at least 4 children leaving us  every year to pursue studies in mainstream schools.
2. There was a steady increase in the number of new admissions when the school reopened in June 2009. We have 182 children on the rolls as on 30^th June 2009.
3. Thanks to prompt action by Cognizant foundation in  transferring  funds to our suppliers, we have been able to procure various equipments and devices like EMG Biofeedback, Hippotherapy-igallop, modified computer devices etc. all of which will help in the quality of physiotherapy exercises and the therapists to assess more accurately the progress of each child.  Apart from the authorities of the Cognizant Foundation at Chennai, particularly Sshri. Lakshminarayanan, Krishnan, Madhavan and Ramamurthy, we extend our sincere and deep gratitude to SShri. T.P.Vincent,.Shivasubramanian and.Binod Krishna, of Cognizant Technologies, Cochin for their help. The total sum received from them is Rs.2.8 lakhs.
4. Official intimation has  come from the Director of Public Instruction, Govt. of Kerala that  a sum of Rs. 10, 00, 000/- has been sanctioned to us as a one time grant. The Govt has arranged a mega function at Thiruvananthapuram on 09/07/09 for distributing this amount to the recipient special schools. Half the amount is for installation of a solar system for lights and fans in the special school premises and the other half for procurement of teaching and therapy equipments.
5. A total of Rs 3,02,060/- was received from Give India in the last financial year. With our regular feedback reports of utilization of fund and updated website, we hope to  continue to get a good amount as donation in the coming years also. Our tie up with them in August 2006 has really been a great boon to. We are very grateful to them.
6. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd- Kochi Refinery  have installed a fire safety system in school. Considering the importance of such a facility in a school where 200-250 people are moving around daily, this help is invaluable to us. We extend our sincere and deep gratitude to the management of BPCL.
7. A short-film called “PINBENCH” (“the last bench”)  was produced by Adv.Madhuben based on the activities of Adarsh. The film was presented at a short film fest organized by “Sign” ,an association of young directors and was agiven  a special jury award.
8. A brief “mind nourishment activity” was introduced in the assembly with soothing background music for all our children.

II. LATEST PROJECTS

1. Extension to the school building- “Building up  further on our dream building at Kureekad”

Think India Foundation, Dallas, Texas, USA has donated Rs.10, 00,000/-. As soon as information was received that the largesse was on its way, we got in touch with our ever dependable Chief Patron, Shri C K Menon. As  usual , he has agreed to donate the rest of the amount of Rs. 20 lakhs required to provide 6 class rooms , a kitchen and canteen.  The need for additional class rooms is being increasingly felt, not only because of the increase in numbers of children but also due to introduction of items of quality training and therapy like a separate room for training of children with ADHD(attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), for visual stimulation etc. The proposal is to extend the present building at the back. The foundation is being provided for 3 floors but at present we will provide only one floor of about 3000 sq ft. We are ever so grateful to Think India foundation, Dalls, Texas, Give India foundation, Mumbai and of course our own Shri C K Menon. The work is expected to start in a month and get completed in 9 to 12 months from then.

III. CELEBRATION, PICNIC ETC.

1. We celebrated Annual sports and Annual day on 23^rd & 24^th April 2009 respectively. Children from all the sections mainly Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Down syndrome participated in all the events.
2. A “PRAVESANOTSAVAM” was organized on 1^st June 2009 in the school to herald the new academic year 2009-10 and welcome the new entrants.
3. We organized a function in the school to honour 2 of our former children, Kumari.Divya Dinesan and Kumari.Surumi, who passed SSLC with A+ grade. 

IV. OTHER ACTIVITIES

1. Total number of students is 182. Age-wise students details  are as follows:

0-5                                                                                    43

6-10                                                                                72

11-15                                                                           54

16 & Above                           13

2. In April a new Physiotherapist was recruited in the section for children with Down syndrome. With her experience, we intend to give occupational therapy also at the centre.

3. At CDEIRC, end of   Current Quarter               Last Quarter

Total Number of children:

                           Evaluated                 87                             101

In the section for 

                   Down syndrome             12                                 15 

        Learning Disorder               17                                26  

The figures under all the heads show a drop in performance. The number of children in the Learning Disorder section has come down mainly because many parents felt that their children could do without our special help. If this feeling is justified, we are naturally very happy. The Developmental Paediatrician was on leave for some time bringing down the children taken up for evaluation.

4. CDEIRC organized a vacation summer camp for children with Learning disorders. 21 children attended the camp and the response from the camp was so encouraging that we plan to start a separate regular section for children with learning problems in August 2009. We have been fortunate to locate a more commodious place, equally accessible (this is a very important consideration as the children attending the special class for remedial education are mostly those attending normal schools and come to us only for an hour or so after a full day in school, for intensive one-to-one special training only).

V. MAJOR DONORS OF THE QUARTER

1. Think India Foundation, USA.,
2. Shri.Vedantham,USA
3. Ms.Mini John & Shri. John Alexander, USA
4. Shri.Pradish Haridas, Bangalore
5. Smt. Leena & Shri George, Cochin
6. Lalitha Gopalkrishnan
7. Ms.Anitha Unnithan, Chennai
8. Shri Arun Sathyan, Tripunithura,
9. Ms.Tara Mani, Bangalore
10. Shri B.R.Nair,Chennai
11. Shri.V.Narayanan, Bangalore.

VI. REGULAR DONORS

1. HIGH COURT STAFF ASSOCIATION, COCHIN
2. TEEJAN FOODS (P) LTD, COCHIN.
3. SHRI. A E LAKSHMANAN, CHENNAI

“DISABILITY CANNOT DEFEAT AN INSPIRED MIND”